Privacy Policy

Effective Date: June 7, 2026

On-Device Processing

LocalPhotos is built around the principle of data privacy. All indexing, face recognition, duplicate detection, and search run locally on your Mac. Your photos are never uploaded to LocalPhotos servers — we operate no cloud backend, and we never receive your media or metadata.

Network Use

The current version of LocalPhotos runs entirely on your Mac. The only time it may use the network is to request map tiles from Apple in the Location view, so it can show where photos were taken — your photos are never sent to do this. Aside from optional map tiles, the app makes no outbound network connections with your library data.

Planned Features

We are developing optional features that, when released, will use a network connection — always on your own equipment and only if you choose to enable them:

• Direct device sync (upcoming): pairing a companion app to send data over your local Wi-Fi (or a private network you control, such as Tailscale) directly to your own iPhone or iPad, never routed through us.
• iCloud Space Saver (upcoming): interacting with your own iCloud Photos library through Apple on your Mac, keeping your data within your Apple account.

These features are not yet available in the App Store release. This policy will be updated before they ship, and they will remain optional and off by default.

Face Recognition & Machine Learning

All Face Recognition, Object Detection, and Duplicate Scanning algorithms are executed directly on your device's CPU/GPU using Apple's Vision framework. The mathematical embeddings (FacePrints) and metadata generated during this process are stored exclusively on your local hard drive within the metadata directory you explicitly select.

Data Collection

We collect zero personal data, analytics, crash logs, or telemetry from the application. Your media library remains strictly yours.

This Website

This website does not use cookies, advertising, or analytics/tracking scripts. As with any website, our hosting provider may automatically record standard technical request logs (such as IP address and browser type) for security and to operate the site. If you email us for support, we use your message and address only to respond to you.

Changes to This Policy

As our application evolves, we may update this policy. Because we collect no data, you will simply see the updated policy inside the application and on this website. By continuing to use the software, you consent to our entirely offline, privacy-first architecture.

Contact Us

If you have any questions regarding your privacy, please reach out through our Contact page.